I need to add about 4 SATA ports and eBay has lots of cheap SAS RAID card but I don't know which one are any good and which one are must-avoid. I have an available PCI-e 8x slot (electrically max 4x, physically handles max 8x card) and I just need something to add 4 SATA ports. RAID feature will not be used and if it can be flashed to non RAID card it'd be nice.
Are cards like HP Smart Array E200 or Dell Perc 6/iR any good? Or what card is good? Something I can get that handles SATA II speed (most 7200 and under mechanical hard drive doesn't go fast enough to really benefit SATA III anyway), can have 4 standard SATA/SAS ports but not be limited to only the funky plug that is designed for swap plane. Some cards have odd connector at both end and can't be used directly with SATA hard drives.
Or maybe someone can tell me what NOT to get? I am not getting standard PCI version for sure, they'd get bottlenecked in no time. And not PCI-X either.
Are cards like HP Smart Array E200 or Dell Perc 6/iR any good? Or what card is good? Something I can get that handles SATA II speed (most 7200 and under mechanical hard drive doesn't go fast enough to really benefit SATA III anyway), can have 4 standard SATA/SAS ports but not be limited to only the funky plug that is designed for swap plane. Some cards have odd connector at both end and can't be used directly with SATA hard drives.
Or maybe someone can tell me what NOT to get? I am not getting standard PCI version for sure, they'd get bottlenecked in no time. And not PCI-X either.
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